Roundup Cancer Lawsuit News

The Chemical At The Heart Of Roundup Lawsuits

Glyphosate is the chemical plaintiffs are claiming leads to cancer in their Monsanto Roundup lawsuits, and there is a long history of evidence that calls Roundup's main ingredient into question.

Friday, March 10, 2017 - The growing number of Monsanto Roundup lawsuits alleging the product can lead to an increased risk for cancer all share a fixation on the active ingredient glyphosate. This is because the chemical has been at the heart of many studies into the carcinogenic properties of Roundup and even has a spotty history in its initial approval. The claims filed against Monsanto assert that the company knew that glyphosate was a potential carcinogen and decided to market the product as safe anyways without warning their consumer base to the potential dangers surrounding the chemical.

Monsanto first discovered glyphosate's utility as a weedkiller in the early 1970s and soon thereafter began to develop the chemical as the base of a future weedkiller. This weedkiller prototype would eventually become the widely popular product Roundup, which is now the focus of lawsuits filed around the country. Glyphosate appeals as a weed killing chemical as it kills a very specific type of plant, and can be used indiscriminately on commercial crops while only killing plants that can threaten the intended yield.

Glyphosate first appeared on the market as the main ingredient in Roundup in 1974 and quickly grew in popularity. Today, more than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed both commercially and privately around the world to combat weeds. It is a large revenue generating product for Monsanto and has been used to more than 40 years by farmers.

Plaintiffs that have filed Roundup cancer lawsuits against Monsanto claim that the company first became aware of the carcinogenic properties behind glyphosate in the 1980's, and in 1985 the EPA declared the glyphosate was possibly carcinogenic to humans. Only six years later however, the EPA declared that glyphosate was not carcinogenic, despite the objections of two committee members in charge of making the distinction. One of them even refused to sign off on the declaration.

In the same year as glyphosate was determined not to be toxic by the EPA, the first pieces of evidence were being published proving that glyphosate in complex chemical solutions could be more toxic than the chemical on its own. This was followed by a number of studies over the next 25 years that linked glyphosate to cancer and built the case for the chemical being a dangerous carcinogen. All this information would have been available to Monsanto, and plaintiffs believe that the company chose not to pass these warnings onto consumers in an effort to protect the marketability of their popular weed killer product.

More recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer deemed glyphosate as a Class 2A possible carcinogen in March of 2015 and later named the chemical a probable carcinogen just four months later in a full Monograph on the topic. The international health organization found a number of links between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in addition to a number of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma subtypes.

The Monsanto Roundup lawsuits have been consolidated into an MDL to help with the anticipated filing of a high number of claims against the agricultural company regarding its popular weedkiller. Monsanto to date has maintained that its product is safe, and the glyphosate is in no way linked to cancer.

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Lawyers for Roundup Cancer Lawsuits

Attorneys handling Roundup cancer lawsuits for leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma offer free, no-obligation case review for individuals and families who believe they may have grounds to file a Roundup cancer lawsuit. Working on a contingency basis, these attorneys are committed to never charging legal fees unless they win compensation in your Roundup cancer lawsuit. The product liability litigators handling Roundup claims at the Onder Law Firm have a strong track record of success in representing families harmed by dangerous drugs and consumer products.